PALM-E. 503 



are akin to the liliaceous tribe, and Linnseus 

 happily terms them the princes of the vege- 

 table kingdom. His most numerous remarks 

 concerning them occur in his Prcdeciiones 

 in Ordines Naturaks Plant arum 9 published 

 by Professor Giseke at Hamburgh in 1792, 

 from private lectures and conversations of Lin- 

 noeus. This work however is necessarily full of 

 Errors and mistakes, not only from its mode 

 of compilation and the intricacy of the sub- 

 ject, but because Linnaeus had only partially 

 studied certain parts of that subject, and was 

 undecided in his sentiments upon those parts. 

 It was a singular instance of indulgent libe- 

 rality in him to allow his disciples Fabricius 

 and Giseke to make notes, for their own use, 

 of what he considered himself as scarcely 

 competent to lay in a finished form before 

 the public. We are obliged to the editor 

 for preserving these valuable though crude 

 materials, and he has shown ability in di- 

 gesting and elucidating them. I should 

 scarcely, for my own part, have thought it 

 right to furnish still more crude and imper- 

 fect guesses and opinions, from manuscripts 

 which their illustrious author had purposely, 



